Overall, I think it is a good product that will come in SUPER handy this school year! More Info for Teachers from Smile Makers:

SmileMakers offers Teacher Perks, added savings, just for teachers. Teachers will receive free shipping with any order of $49 or more or $4.99 flat rate shipping with any order of $48.99 or less. Teachers will also get special private sales & free gift offers!

The ELA based Daily 5 and CAFE have seemed to have a really positive impact on many schools including mine. My math counterparts and I sat down together last week to discuss how we could implement Daily 5 more efficiently this school year. Last year we used the regular 5 stations (math by myself, math with a buddy, math technology, problem solving and math something-else-I-can't-remember) and we changed activities from Pinterest finds weekly. Can you say WAY TOO MUCH PREPARATION???

All over pinterest you will see how teachers have used cans, tiny buckets and
cups to create areas to turn in an unsharpenend pencil and pick up a sharpened
one.

This is because teachers HATE pencil sharpening sounds when they are
trying to teach and many schools invest in high dollar sharpeners that students
are not allowed to use because they will break them.

Last night I took
two empty mason jars and transformed them to match my style for my future
classroom! I want to eventually glitter podge the black metal tops and add more
marble rocks but this will do for now :)

I used my cameo to cut the
vinyl and the colored rocks are black clear and purple :)

I moved this post from my old blog:

Yesterday in my math class our plans told us
to put our students into small groups and have them invent or adjust a game to
make it contain fractions. As I was walking around monitoring I heard one kiddo
say "Fraction Hopscotch" That's all it took! From then on my mind went in
overdrive trying to sketch a perfect layout on paper.

I pulled out our
STAAR (our state mandated test) resource page (page kids can rip out and use
during test with helpful formulas/info). I looked closely at the hash marks and
how each one was represented on the "inches" side of the paper.

Then I
grabbed a roll of painters tape and spent my ENTIRE conference period (45
minutes) putting down the tape and figuring it all out.

Here is what I
came up with:

Isn't it
AWESOME???!!!!???!!!!???!!???!!???!!???!

The students stand
on "ZERO" lightly roll a

balled up piece of
paper onto a fraction.

Then they hop on
the squares and SAY the name of each fraction.

When they land on a
double they have to name the equivalent fractions

"One fourth is
equal to two eighths"

some of my students
even say:

"One fourth is
equivalent to two-eighths"

Which makes me OH
SO HAPPY

The tricky one is
1/2 because there are 3 squares.

Our solution: first
straddle it and say it then jump do a half

turn in the air
(that's how we roll in my room) land with both

feet on one half
and then name all three fractions that are equivalent

THEN

if you're really
fancy you finish the hopscotch the second half of the way facing
backwards.

OR

you can start it
facing backwards and turn forwards at the 1/2 point.

Either way. . .you
have to turn. . .it's what the cool kids are doing ;)

Enjoy :)

*you can also just
draw this out with chalk outside*

By doing this
students are practicing: Ordering fractions, equivalent fractions, reading a
ruler, understanding hash mark lengths on a ruler, preparing to use resource
page on state test, how to make math applicable in real FUN situations ;)